


In my heart you'll always stay

by viveriveniversumvivusvici55



Category: Speakeasy Tonight (Visual Novel)
Genre: Cuddling, F/M, Nightmares, PTSD, Tooth Rotting Fluff, Warm Fuzzy Feelings, just a touch of self loathing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-01
Updated: 2017-11-01
Packaged: 2019-01-27 23:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12593472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viveriveniversumvivusvici55/pseuds/viveriveniversumvivusvici55
Summary: Post-nightmare cuddling. That's it. Just fluff and cuddles and a bit of inner monologuing.





	In my heart you'll always stay

**Author's Note:**

> I may have fallen in love with Neil Dresner. Just a bit. He deserves so much better. Either way, enjoy.
> 
> The title is inspired by a lullaby my mother used to sing to me.

The dreams come, as they always do, and Neil wakes up with a hiss of breath, eyes wide as he gasps for breath. It takes a few moments for him to breathe normally again, sitting upright as he tries to relax, tries to ground himself in the moment. _You're in Chicago. You're safe. The war is over, you're safe._

Well, as safe as one could be in his line of work.

When he can take a steady breath again, he turns to look at the woman in his bed, seeing if he woke her. Nothing, just her soft breaths as she cuddles up into the pillow, and Neil can't help how his mouth ticks up just slightly at the sight of her there. The sight of her isn't enough to calm his racing heartbeat entirely, but it does help. 

How did he get here? How did he get lucky enough to find this pretty little gal in his bed, in his life, in his heart? God knows he doesn't deserve her here, but she's there and even just her presence there helps to make his racing heart settle in his chest.

Carefully, he lays back down into the bed, curling around her body. He isn't going to sleep for a while yet, if at all tonight. The dreams are too fresh, the memories clawing at his brain like an angry cat, and he slides an arm over her, holding his gal tight as if her warmth could banish the dreams away. 

The pressure is enough to make her stir, and she makes a noise, shifting in the bed. "Neil?"

Damn. He presses a soft kiss to her shoulder. "It's alright, doll. Go back to sleep."

She rolls over with that, a little happy sound coming from her that makes his shrivelled heart feel warm, and wraps herself around him, her head over his heart. It takes him a moment, but his hand comes up to pet her hair, the soft red strands sliding through his fingers.

She's back asleep in seconds, worn out by the long night of work at the Icebox, and he is left alone to his thoughts. But he's not entirely alone, not with her heartbeat against his side, her breath skittering across his chest and raising goose flesh, her soft skin under his hand.

No, maybe he doesn't deserve her. Not with what he has seen and done, not with how the War destroyed him, not with how he destroyed himself to deal with the pain, not with how he has clawed himself into what vaguely resembles an existence by tooth and nail, not with how he can only stand life with a balm of bourbon and the drumming motto of 'one day at a time, one day at a time, one day at a time'.

But she chose him, as she so firmly tells him in his darker moments, in their happy moments, whenever she can. She smirks at him in that infuriating way, she slides onto the bar stool next to him, and she drawls at him in her Ohio born voice that she'll stick by him. She tells him so when they make breakfast, when they lay in bed together, when they are in any stage of closeness. She backs him up just as much as he does for her. In the quiet when they're alone, she tells him that she loves him, and just those words make him light up inside. 

It's strange, feeling that light. It's not overwhelming, not enough to drown out the darkness he is so used to. He told her as much. But that does not change the fact that she makes the world a bit less bleak, a bit easier to live in, a bit more enjoyable. She is an unexpected surprise, a breath of fresh air that rattles the cobwebs and throws open the curtains to let a bit of that sun in. She continues to surprise him every day, and for the first time in a long time, Neil looks forward to the next day simply to see what she will do next.

There's fire in her, warmth and passion and enough guts to fill an entire regiment. She walks with her head held high, her pretty dresses swishing around her legs, a smile on her face and her heart on her sleeve. She walks in beauty like the night, as Byron would say. 

She is...she simply is. And God, he loves this little gal for it.

Sleep won't come to him for a while, if it does at all. But he is content to lay here with her, enjoying these precious little moments while he can. He still pets her hair as he looks up at the ceiling, cuddling her close like she's a teddy bear as much as a person, doing his best to ingrain the moment into his memory.

So no, he may not deserve her. But he's hers, and she's his. That means he's going to hold on to her for as long as he can.

**Author's Note:**

> _Rest your head, don't you cry,_   
>  _Mama sings a lullaby,_   
>  _When you dream, dream so deep,_   
>  _Dream so big you fall asleep._   
>  _Tenderly slip away,_   
>  _In my heart you'll always stay._   
>  _When you wake, I'll be there to hold you close like teddy bear._


End file.
